QuoteReplyTopic: Player salaries in clubs in EU Posted: 09/29/2018 at 7:31am

A member of a Table Tennis Facebook Group I follow wrote a very interesting post with the info he was able to gather about men salaries in clubs in EU. So according to the author:

-players who are ~bellow ITTF250+ are playing for food, equipment and a butterfly suit. On a good day, they even may get 100eur for small expenses

-players around ITTF250 earn on average 12-15000 EUR per season +bonuses for results, so on average around 100eur per victory

-players around ITTF200-250 can expect 15-20000 EUR per season+some bonuses

-players around ITTF150-200 can expect 18-22000 EUR per season+some bonuses

-players around ITTF100-150 can earn up to 30000 per season, on average 25-27000 EUR per season

-Crossing ITTF-100 is an important threshold in Table tennis. Top 100 players salaries start from 30000 eur per season. But it depends upon how stable are you. Whether you are always in the top 100 or if your ranking varies from for example ITTF-120 to ITTF-80...

-players around ITTF-60 and up earn 40-50000 eur per season. Those who are stable above ITTF-50 earn not less then 60000EUR per season

-players around ITTF-20 earn from 60-90000eur per season. But it may vary wildly depending on the results

-top players get 150000-300000 eur per season or more. But, for example, stars like Timo Boll earn much more than that.

Also, players get bonuses for taking first places in various tournaments, so this money usually goes only to top players naturally.

Salaries in China are much bigger than in Europe.

So the takeaway is that you should get a normal job and stop dreaming about making your living from TT. Cause to be able to make a decent living you have to be one of let's say 100 top players in the whole world and have superpower

Easier to be a top 500 player and just coach and coach, but a very boring way to make a living i feel.They easily make 35-40USD an hour, and work 40-50 hours a week, no tax. Some I don't feel are very good coaches though. Just have a great playing resume, which needs enthusiasm and genuine attachment in order to translate into a good consistent service worth the $$, imo.

They will get much more from the sponsorship & commercial than their salaries once they get famous. For example, ZJK made about ￥20~30MM, which is something close to $3~4MM in usd every year while he was at his peak despite his salary was less than ￥1MM.

"I have to admit, I'm really fearful of the moment I have to say 'This is it, I have to stop'. I haven't done anything else my whole life, I mean I became a professional when I was 16. I did learn no other profession but playing the game, it is my only earnings".

"I have to admit, I'm really fearful of the moment I have to say 'This is it, I have to stop'. I haven't done anything else my whole life, I mean I became a professional when I was 16. I did learn no other profession but playing the game, it is my only earnings".

—Timo Boll

I don't think Timo Boll should be worried about money when he retires.

-I think it would safe to asume (no actual data, just some guess) he makes a couple of mln in total per year from salaries, bonuses, prizes, sponsorships

-then multiply by some 20 years he is a pro now, divide by 2, because he didn't make these money all the time

-substract some 5 mln to be on a safer side and you get some 15 mln net worth :)

-Let's say he spends some 20k per month on food, booze and petrol :) , so 15mln/20k*12=60. So if he decided to do nothing but enjoy life it would be enough for 60 years...

this thread is about Pros who plays in EU clubs but it is not possible to generalize since the Bundesliga is by far the most difficult championship in EU and there are professional players not only in 1st league but also in second and even in third German league.

So it is normal German clubs who needs top players and have a very competitive competition pay a lot more their players than any other EU league.

Than you have the French competition with some clubs like Chartres or hennebont, Austria with Niederöstereich....

The other clubs don't pay really well and for a lot of them, playing european competition is a curse because it costs a lot.

TT is really not a sport where players earn a lot of money, even pros. I know very well some Belgium players who are in the top 200 and they don't earn 22.000 EUR + bonus a season or this is a bruto wage. They need the help of sponsors each time to go abroad playing tournament and often lose in the qualifications....they barely get help from the federation because the country prefers giving the money for football teams. TT is really not the good way for becoming rich for 99,99% of the players.

If the numbers of the OP are correct, I think these players may have better income when they retire and become coaches than when they are still competitive players.

Many famous players in my country actually become table tennis merchants/retailers when they retire or stop playing at their highest level (because they don't train full time anymore) and earn a lot more money.

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